Dense fog likely to harm rice seedlings, potato, mustard, tomato

December 30, 2014

Dense fog and chilly weather are likely to harm rice seedlings and the standing crops of potato, tomato and mustard, said the Department of Agricultural Extension officials.
They said that potato output could drop due to early or late blight disease.
Alternaria blight disease could affect mustard and leaf blight disease could affect tomato, they said.
DAE officials said they asked field level agriculture offices across the country to alert the growers about seasonal diseases.
They said that the growers must take precautionary measures to protect their crops from the chilly weather and dense fog.
They said that the diseases could affect the crops if the temperature falls below eight of seven degree celsius.
DAE field service wing said that the growers already transplanted boro saplings on about 1,18,000 hectares.
The growers have prepared 98 per cent of boro seedbeds across the country, DAE records show.
About 4.57 lakh hectares potato crop await harvest, they said.
The growers sowed mustard on 5.59 lakh hectares, they said.
Nilphamari district agriculture officer Mohammad Sanaul Islam said that they began to advise farmers to prepare dry seedbeds for boro rice to protect its seedlings from cold weather.
The growers are applying fungicides to protect the standing potato crop from blight attacks, he said.
Assistant agriculture officer at Bhairab Bazaar said that the standing mustard crop on a massive low lying areas in the upazila was vulnerable to alternaria blight due to chilly weather and dense fog.
DAE additional director Sunil Chandra Dhar told New Age that he was receiving sporadic complaints that rice seedlings suffered cold injury at some of the areas.